


A Secret You and Me House

by Magichris



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Breakups, F/F, Feels, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Makeups, Prom, Slow Burn, Tumblr Prompts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 14:03:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9749681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magichris/pseuds/Magichris
Summary: It started with a treehouse.





	

It started with a treehouse. It was quaint, which was just a nice way to saying it was a hunk of junk. It was simple, but effective. It had a rickety ladder on the side and some of the wood panels jutted out at odd angles. What were you expecting? Jughead was an eight year old with a short attention span and an overzealous liking for whacking nails with a hammer. 

He was reading comics when a boy poked his head inside, eyes filled with wonder and thrill. He climbed up the last few pegs and asked in an awed voice, “What is this?”

Jughead stared at him with wide eyes. “A treehouse. A house in a tree,” he said slowly as if the boy with hair the color of flames was a complete idiot. Maybe he was.

“Cool!” he said and climbed in, sending Jughead into a tizzy. Not only was the dark-haired boy not accustomed to friends, he certainly didn’t expect someone to just invade his home away from home this way.

“You go to school with me,” the boy said matter-of-factly as he sat beside Jughead, leaning close to look over his shoulder. “Whatchya readin’?”

Jughead blinked. “Comic.”

“Well duh,” the boy laughed. “What kind?”

“Batman.”

“I prefer Superman,” he said as if Jughead cared for this tidbit. As if Jughead cared to know anything about him. “I’m Archie!”

He hesitated and looked at him with an air of suspicion. “I’m Jughead…”

“What kind of name is Jughead?” he laughed.

“It’s a nickname.”

“What’s your real name?”

Jughead pushed the comic into Archie’s hand. “Here. Educate yourself. Batman is far superior to Superman.”

“Yeah right! Superman is _totally_ better than Batman,” Archie said, but he accepted the comic. 

* *  
*

The next day at school, Jughead watched in complete shock as Archie tossed a comic on his lunch tray then sat across from him with a grin that again made Jughead feel like this kid was deranged.

“This is the coolest Superman comic made!” he gushed, pointing an eager finger at it.

Jug looked down at it and his little nose wrinkled.

“Come on! Only fair you read one of mine! I read yours.”

“Are you...eating here?”

“Yeah,” Archie said, waving off the table of fellow third-grade kids staring at them. Jughead had gotten used to solitude. He /liked/ being alone.

“Alright then,” Jughead said and stood.

“Where you going’?” Arche asked. His face looked crushed and something shifted inside of Jughead. Something that apparently controlled his legs, because it forced him back into his seat.

He grimaced. “Nowhere, I guess.”

The light was back on Archie’s face. “Okay. So, Superman-”

And that was the start of the next six years of eating lunch with one another.

* *  
*

It didn’t take long for the pair to become inseparable. Jughead found the more he resisted Archie’s friendship, the more the redhead clung. So, he just sort of accepted it. They began to walk to the bus stop together; they hung out at recess; they swapped houses after school. It was Archie that started the weekly sleepovers in the treehouse.

He’d gotten a pair of walkie talkies for his birthday and he’d given one to Jughead. Whenever Archie said “Red to Big J. Over.” Jughead would answer, “Big J here. Over.” and they’d talk all night. Until one Friday, Jughead was in a mood (that’s what his dad called it. “Don’t talk to him, he’s in a _mood_ ,” or “Snap out of your _mood_ or no dinner”) and he’d holed himself up in his tree.

“Red to Big J. Over.”

Jughead ignored it.

“RED TO BIG J. OVER.”

He sighed and shoved it underneath his sleeping bag, looking out at the night sky from the opening of his treehouse.

Not ten minutes later, Archie poked his head inside. He flashed Jughead his infamous grin then climbed in. Jughead was ready to sock the boy to get him to keep quiet, but apparently, Archie sensed that, because he just curled up in his sleeping bag and waited for Jug to come around.

His “mood” stayed the same, but his heart felt just a bit lighter as he laid beside him and fell asleep. 

* *  
*

“What are we doing for your birthday?” 

“Sleepover?” Jughead suggested.

“Yeah, but we do that all the time. You should have a party too! You only turn ten once,” Archie said with a grin. 

“Your birthday is right after mine!” Jughead argued. “You should have a party for _yours_.”

“We could combine it.” Archie began to jump on his bed in excitement. “We can invite Betty and Reggie and Moose-”

Jughead groaned and whacked him with a pillow. But they did have a party and fun - as Archie promised - they did have. Jughead even pretended not to know Reggie and Moose were talking about him behind his back and for a day - just one day - it seemed like /he/ had a group of friends too.

* *  
*

When they were twelve, Archie discovered girls. Jughead didn’t. 

“Did you hear Rachel has a crush on me?”

Jughead groaned. “Yeah, she wrote ‘Mrs. Rachel Andrews’ on every inch of her Science notebook.” He thought this was disgusting, but judging by Archie’s grin, the boy disagreed.

“Maybe I’ll ask her to be my girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“Gross,” Jughead sighed as he climbed onto the bus.

“It’s not gross!” He sat down and shoved his backpack under the seat. 

“It is. What do you even do with a girlfriend?”

Archie thought about it. “Well, like, the same things that we do, but with...you know...holding hands and kissing.”

Jughead looked at him, aghast. “ _Kissing_?”

Archie laughed and pulled Jughead’s crown shaped beanie off and put it on his own head as he looked out the window. “Yeah. Kissing.”

* *  
*

“You can’t turn into douche,” Jughead warned in a teasing tone.

Archie laughed. “Well, it’s too late for you,” he said, which earned him a whack over the head with a bag full of marshmallows.

It was the last day of summer before starting ninth grade and the two boys sat around the fire pit in Archie’s backyard, toasting marshmallows and speculating what life would be like in high school.

Jughead didn’t know it at the time, but everything was about to change. If he had known then, he would have clung to these last moments with every ounce of strength he possessed.

**Author's Note:**

> This is for sunnyjughead on Tumblr, based on their prompts!
> 
> <3 Thanks for reading, folks! Come chat with me on Tumblr - magichris.tumblr.com.


End file.
